This is a new brake system for minimizing the turning radius of a vehicle when it makes a U-turn or parks. Its object is to overcome the limit of conventional vehicles"" minimum radii through its circling around one of its wheels which isn""t braked. It is a totally new concept.
Typical vehicles"" systems have adopted the Ackerman-Jeantaud steering principle. This principle lets a car circle around a point at a certain distance from it. But this invention make it circle around the wheel by utilizing the phenomenon that if one of its wheels is braked, an differential gear apparatus works, and motive power is sent to other wheels that are less loaded, that is, not braked, and therefore it can circle within a shorter radius than others can.
The traditional system just concentrates on how to stop shortly and steadily so it""s equipped with a booster and an anti-lock brake system. This is a completely different auxiliary brake system from others which are operated with electric power. As stated above, this is a brake system; however, its ultimate aim is not to improve the ability of braking but to minimize its turning radius by braking one wheel.
The brake is to restrict the driving force of wheels ultimately. If the brake is put on, the increased power in the booster is transferred to the master cylinder, which generates high hydraulic pressure. This pressure pushes the pistons of each wheel cylinders and a caliper cylinders, pressures brake shoes and a discs and makes brake drums or pads compressed to provide the car with braking power by friction via brake lines.
This system is largely composed of three kinds of principles. First, it makes the braking power by utilizing a actuator installed between a brake pedal and a booster. Second, it transfers the hydraulic pressure to its aim, a brake line exclusively. Third, this is a circuit apparatus for an one wheel brake and safety. Motive power of the actuator and hydraulic pressure cutoff devices can adopt anything among the method that uses attraction or repulsion of electromagnets with electric power stored in battery, the method that moves pinion connected to armature of electromotor, or the hydraulically-operated method that inject it with oil. Choosing one of these methods depends on the efficiency changed according to the structure of vehicles or the convenience in manufacturing it, and this invention suggests the basis for this theory here.
Minimizing the radius creates several merits. First, there is the considerable convenience of parking or pulling out of narrow spaces. Therefore, this invention is very useful for a beginner or a driver afraid of parking. Second, it is easy to park the car in narrow places between other cars. These usually needs to be 1.5 time space as the length of vehicles to park in an I-formed place, however parking a car with this apparatus, just 1.2 time space as that of vehicles is required. Hence, it allows many more cars to park on the limited spaces in cites. Third, it ameliorates the ability of a U-turn. Minimizing the radius to an extreme means that it makes a U-turn faster or more convenient. Forth, its additional benefits elevates vehicles"" capacity for getting out of a rugged or swampy spot by concentrating motive power on the free wheels. Fifth, it can ensure that braking power stronger than the hand brake eliminating an operator""s troublesome pull when the vehicle stands on a slope or waits for a green light. This function increases the convenience of driving and the transmission of an auto-transmission vehicle fitted for being loaded as much as possible at a fixed amount. As stated above, this system has a lot of strong points but this applied invention of mine(application No. 98-39533 KR) has drawbacks, which includes the increase of the vehicle weight due to equipping it with an independent auxiliary brake system, the necessity of strong power for generating high hydraulic pressure, and the difficulty in manufacturing it due to the complication of its structure. However, this invention has solved these shortcomings through another method. The previous problems are removed by the attachment of this one brake system to the foot brake line of the vehicle keeping its original function intact. It gets rid of the possibility of accidents caused by misoperation of a dashboard during an operator""s driving.